“Once you drive the McLaren, it’s over,” Lauren says. “It’s like no car I’ve ever driven. The McLaren is like Star Wars–a hovercraft. I feel like I’m not touching the ground. It’s an experience I’ve never had before.

Lauren created his billion-dollar fashion company on his own and paid his business dues by trusting his sense of how to look cool. He began to develop this sense when he was buying his own suits at age 12 and then honed it as he walked to his job selling ties at Brooks Brothers. His eyes would fall on the beautiful shapes in the Jaguar and Morgan Manhattan dealerships that he passed on foot. To him, these cars looked cool. When he began Polo, the business, he didn’t ride around Manhattan in a limo but drove himself in a Mercedes 280 convertible and in two black-on-black Porsche 930s, one a cabriolet. All three cars still look cool today.

In addition to the Long Island garages, Lauren has the newer sports cars and the older classic cars in Westchester, New York, but he has constructing a larger garage that will house all of his cars, plus a few future purchases, under one roof.Lauren recently renovated a former car dealership’s storage facilities near his lavish Westchester, New York, estate to house his amazing jewels on wheels.

He has a home on Fifth Avenue, New York, beach resorts in Jamaica and Montauk, Long Island, and a 17,000-acre Range in Colorado where he keeps about 20 Jeeps and pickups.

2011 Ralph Lauren brings his exquisite car collection to Europe

for the first time for a special exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs